Virtual reality devices have gone from being the ambit of only highly-expensive military and scientific hardware to that of a relatively inexpensive consumer electronics device. The overall field of virtual reality includes both true virtual reality (VR) in which a headset fills the entire view of a user, and also augmented reality in which the user or viewer employs see-through lenses to embellish or augment a real-life scene with computer-generated imagery.
Particularly in the case of true virtual reality (termed herein just virtual reality or “VR”), a user feels considerable immersion in a scene. A problem is that the user is unaware of goings-on in their environment, and the sense of immersion can be undesirably lessened by worries about their environment, including questions of security, safety, and the like. In a worst-case scenario, the user may be unaware if a fire alarm or an intruder alarm is going off. Certain systems allow “camera mode”, where external surroundings may be viewed, but such is a reactive solution, and does not allow proactive action to be taken.
This Background is provided to introduce a brief context for the Summary and Detailed Description that follow. This Background is not intended to be an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter nor be viewed as limiting the claimed subject matter to implementations that solve any or all of the disadvantages or problems presented above.